Verizon’s FiOS added the NFL Network and NFL RedZone to its FiOS TV Online service. The service lets subscribers watch certain pay-TV networks anywhere in the U.S. with a broadband connection, it said. “This authentication agreement with Verizon is part of a larger NFL Media initiative to deliver NFL content to fans and consumers in as many ways possible,” said Hans Schroeder, senior vice president-media strategy and development for the league.
Moody’s predicted about 3 percent growth in the cable industry’s gross earnings next year, saying it believes the credit outlook for the industry is stable. The rate of growth is the result of expected expansion in cable operators’ commercial services while their traditional services face market saturation and competition. Broadband growth is slowing, Moody’s said in a report titled “High Speed Data, Commercial Segment will Drive Continued Growth in 2013.” “The cable broadband product still surpasses most competition … on speed, but growth is slowing as residential high speed data penetration is catching up to household tablet and PC ownership,” the report said. Meanwhile, the video market is approaching a competitive equilibrium among cable operators, satellite providers and phone companies, the report said. “This represents an end of the rapid growth in market share for [direct broadcast satellite], although telecom companies are likely to achieve some continued growth within their footprints at the expense of cable.” Cable’s voice services have limited growth prospects, it said. “We see minimal growth for highly penetrated players like Cox and Cablevision, whereas Comcast and Cequel can boost growth” from their relatively lower penetration levels, it said.
Mobile apps are becoming an increasingly important part of political campaigns, speakers said Thursday during a Brookings Institution event on mobile technology. Mobility is “more and more becoming an essential part of campaigns,” said Katie Harbath, a public policy manager at Facebook and former chief digital strategist for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “It wasn’t just the [Federal Election Commission] finally allowing text donations, or people building mobile apps, which the campaigns did. … It’s just becoming the method of communication that people are using to get their information into interactive campaigns.” Barack Obama’s strategy evolved during his two successful campaigns for president, Harbath said. “The 2008 campaign was really about SMS and basic uses of SMS to communicate, to organize, to a certain extent,” she said. But, “2012 really introduced smartphones and mobile apps.” Obama also did a better job with data than did challenger Mitt Romney, she conceded. Obama officials “brought all their data into one database,” she said. “Very often all your data is siloed, your political data, your polling data, your fundraising data. Republicans don’t have a data problem. Republicans have a ton of data. Where we need to catch up is analyzing that data and acting off of that data.” Because of Twitter and other social media, campaigns find themselves very often playing catchup, said Chris Spence, chief technology officer at the National Democratic Institute. “It’s a very different communications strategy,” he said. “Conversations are happening in real time now and therefore the spin rooms are less effective, almost ineffective.” Rebecca Rosen, associate editor at The Atlantic, said the Obama campaign had a better mobile strategy than the Romney campaign. Obama officials “just tested everything very thoroughly and had much more success on election day with their apps and their database,” she said. “I think it’s easy to put way too much stock into what that translated into on the ground.”
The Maine Public Utilities Commission praised the FCC’s recent push on text-to-911 (CD Dec 13 p12) as a key interim measure as Maine prepares to launch an NG-911 network in 2013. It’s important for “wireless subscribers who currently use text messaging as their primary means of everyday communications, such as those with a hearing or speech disability,” said Chairman Tom Welch in a statement Thursday (http://xrl.us/bn6bxn). “Increasingly this population is abandoning the use of TTYs for newer technologies such as text messaging that allow them more flexibility to communicate with most others except 9-1-1.” It’s also “valuable in situations where a 9-1-1 call may endanger a caller or when voice networks are congested,” he said.
Sequestration budget cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 are the single biggest threat to the U.S. space programs’ continued success, the Aerospace Industries Association said in a study (http://xrl.us/bn6by4). The AIA-funded study said that if sequestration happens, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would experience an 8.2 percent cut “across each agency’s budget for fiscal 2013 and further cuts over the next eight years.” For NOAA, such a cut would result in the loss of more than $154 million “to an already extremely tight, developmental budget for the replacement weather satellites, threatening to extend a gap in polar-orbiting weather satellite coverage expected to begin in 2017,” the study said. A NASA sequestration would bring major damage to regions with high concentrations of aerospace activity around the country, which are known as industry clusters, it said. The report said clusters promote economic efficiencies and specialization, “encourage innovation and entrepreneurship; and drive prosperity for entire regions.” The study was done by Stephen Fuller, director for regional analysis at George Mason University in Virginia.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on Thursday issued an impassioned critique of high prison long distance rates. Rates of more than $1 a minute are “taking an unbelievable toll, particularly on grandmothers raising their children’s children,” she told a luncheon at a telecom seminar run by the Practising Law Institute in cooperation with the Federal Communications Bar Association. Clyburn has been a vocal opponent of high prison phone rates (CD Sept 26 p5). Families can’t easily travel for in-person visits, and high prison phone rates are “resulting in further isolation, further outside collections, and even more broken families,” she said. This issue is about the more than two million children who have “unconditional love for that incarcerated parent,” and elderly parents who have to choose between medicine, home heating, and talking to a child in prison, she said. It’s also important to societies at large, because studies show communication between family and friends lead to lower recidivism rates, which leads to fewer tax dollars spent housing prisoners, she said. A rulemaking notice is circulating on the Wright petition, which sought lower prison phone rates (CD Nov 15 p15). Jesse Jackson and others from his Rainbow PUSH Coalition told Clyburn the group is very concerned about the rates many prisoners have to pay to talk to the outside world. “Rev. Jackson expressed his concern about predatory prison telephone rates and indicated that the issue will be a major focus for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in the months ahead,” said an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://xrl.us/bn6bt3). Jackson “asked about steps that are being taken within the agency to address the problem,” the filing said. “It became clear that, while the FCC can have an impact on interstate rates, it has very little jurisdiction on intrastate calling rates."
Sprint Nextel wants to buy the minority stake in Clearwire it doesn’t own, according to regulatory filings. Sprint, which already owns 51.7 percent of Clearwire, offered $2.1 billion for the remainder (http://xrl.us/bn6bq8). Clearwire said a special committee of its board is in discussions with Sprint on a bid of $2.90 per share. “Clearwire ... under the direction of the Special Committee, continues to be in discussions with Sprint to explore a transaction,” Clearwire said, saying there’s no guarantee of a deal. Clearwire owns lots of spectrum, but at 2.5 GHz “it takes a very large number of cell sites to provide meaningful coverage (roughly twice as many, for example, as would a network built in T-Mobile/MetroPCS’s 1.7/2.1 GHz AWS band),” said Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett. “In-building coverage is particularly poor. In many ways, then, Sprint’s spending on Clearwire only begins with the purchase of the remainder of its equity.” The price could go higher, said New Street Research. “We regard this as a compelling price for Sprint (we had assumed $4 in our prior analysis); however, we would be surprised if large Clearwire holders are willing to sell at this price,” the firm said. “As such, we regard $2.90 as the best case scenario for Sprint and the worst case scenario for Clearwire -- the price could move up from here.” Clearwire closed at $3.16 a share Thursday, up 14.9 percent on the day.
Incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., named the returning and new GOP members of the committee for the 113th Congress Thursday. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., served on the committee until 2007, when he “took a leave of absence” to serve as ranking member and then chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Goodlatte’s office said in a statement. Bachus is known in Internet policy circles for his strong opposition to legalizing online gambling. New members already in Congress are Reps. Blake Farenthold of Texas, a former computer and Web design consultant, and Raul Labrador of Idaho. Incoming freshmen are Reps. Doug Collins of Georgia; Ron DeSantis of Florida, a former federal prosecutor; George Holding of North Carolina, former staffer to the late Sen. Jesse Helms and a U.S. attorney who prosecuted child porn cases; and Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania, a former Homeland Security Department official. Goodlatte’s office said the assignments, recommended by the House Republican Steering Committee, are expected to be approved by the Republican Conference and full House when the 113th Congress convenes in January. House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., separately congratulated incoming committee Vice Chairman Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee on her appointment to the House Budget Committee. Her “tenure and experience” on Commerce “will be an asset in the pursuit of important entitlement reforms that will help rein in the debt,” Upton’s office said.
The FCC’s special access review creates “downside risk for larger incumbent telcos” such as AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink, which have benefitted from special-access deregulation, said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King in a report Thursday. The review also creates “potential upside” for CLECs, which often lease out incumbent telco lines, King said. King expects regulation to be “measured” due to “opposition from the Bells and their congressional allies.” Potential changes in FCC leadership, and AT&T’s push for agency action to facilitate the packet-mode transition (CD Nov 10 p11), could add “further wrinkles” to the request, King said. While the Bells “appear to be playing mostly defense” in the special access proceeding, they are “attempting to play offense in pushing for FCC actions to speed the transition” from traditional circuit-switched phone systems to Internet Protocol technology, he said. “We expect much wrangling.” But King doubts the commission will make any sweeping decisions before 2014, given the pending Paperwork Reduction Review, the time needed to formulate recommended actions, and the potential departure of Chairman Julius Genachowski.
Verizon Communications said it expanded its 100G network in 2012 by an additional 13,000 miles in the U.S. and 1,616 miles in Europe to meet rising network demand. In the U.S., Verizon said it expanded 100G, referring to 100 Gbps optical transmission, along routes “where demand is highest,” including Atlanta to Tampa, Kansas City to Dallas and Salt Lake City to Seattle. Those routes use the same routers and equipment as the first 100G routes deployed in 2011, Verizon said. In Europe, Verizon said it expanded 100G into two new routes: London to Paris and London to Frankfurt. Those routes join a previously deployed route between Frankfurt and Paris, Verizon said. “Expanding 100G technology on our high-performance U.S. and European networks means Verizon is able to successfully meet traffic demand while increasing efficiency and capacity,” said Kyle Malady, Verizon senior vice president-global network operations and engineering, in a news release. “Increased video traffic, LTE 4G growth and cloud usage are driving bandwidth demand, and 100G is critical to creating that rich end-user experience” (http://xrl.us/bn6a56).